


Hope

by SoulStealer1987



Series: Starchasers [7]
Category: Warframe
Genre: Gen, I made it pretty vague lol, also had some fun trying to figure out Biz's backstory, also remember kids when a ship has an & it's a platonic one, anyway Biz basically adopted LD and you can pry my headcanons from my cold dead hands thanks, but what's the fun in that?, honestly just my attempt to reconcile the Solaris United ARG with canon, it ties in with my own Warframe universe but feel free to borrow it for your own, sure I couuuuld interpret whatever was going on between these two as romance, will it ever be revealed? probably not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 09:23:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17640101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulStealer1987/pseuds/SoulStealer1987
Summary: Hope's a funny thing, and not one that Little Duck's had much of recently. But the Corpus seem to think Solaris United is back, and there's probably some truth to that. So, it's back to where it all happened, and the hope that this time it isn't burning, and her along with it.Or, in other words, I wanted to reconcile the Solaris United ARG with canon. Here's my attempt at doing that, ft. LD being her usual self.





	Hope

Little Duck had been planning to talk to Eudi first. Course, that was before she realized that just because SU was back didn’t mean everyone was on-board with it. That much was damn clear from the moment she saw her. Really, she hadn’t been sure what to expect, not after everything, but it wasn’t… this.

There’s not a trace of Vox left. Nothing. If LD was feeling optimistic, she might look a little harder. Instead, she leaves before Eudi can spot her and goes looking for Biz. If Eudi’s not behind SU, then it’s Biz. Has to be. He’s not hard to find, clearly busy when she gets there.

“Don’t have time, go talk to Eudico,” Biz mutters, not glancing up, as she approaches. He’s fiddling with what looks like some kind of comms device. Corpus tech. Stolen for sure.

“Love to, can’t do that and we both know why,” LD says dryly. “Been a while, Biz.”

He looks up. Doesn’t visibly react, not that she was expecting anything. Instead, he sets down his comms thingy, and stares. Gets quiet.

“You’re not here for a social visit,” he says. She almost laughs. Almost.

“What gave it away? Look. I can tell Eudi’s not the one who restarted SU, so it’s gotta be you.”

“How did you—” He sighs. “We can’t talk out here. Come on.”

* * *

“The Tenno? _Really?_ ” She groans. As usual, the bloody Quills knew much more than they let on, the muckers. “They’re as likely to side with the Corpus as you.”

“It’s a long shot, I’ll admit. However, I have reason to believe it will work. You do too, or you wouldn’t be here.” Biz is still holding that comms device thingy. Doesn’t want to leave it. Maybe he’s using it to contact the Tenno. “Am I wrong?”

Little Duck just shrugs. She’s not sure what her answer is anymore. “Nef’s doing something with Orb Mothers. Dunno what but it’ll be bad. And he knows SU’s trying to get back on its feet.”

“He knows it’s us?”

“The pencilneck I was supposed to extract knew,” she says, then adds, “Didn’t make it. Barely got out myself. Nef might not… but he might.”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t,” Biz murmurs.

“Hope didn’t do much for anybody in the end.”

He sighs. LD suspects, if she could see his face, he’d have that look in his eyes, the one where she just _knows_ he’s thinking about the past she _still_ doesn’t know a damn thing about for sure. But she can make a few educated guesses.

Hope might have been what got everyone killed the first time, and broken the survivors beyond repair—but for some reason, Biz hasn’t given up yet. He’s not from Fortuna, not originally. The accent gives that much away.

LD hasn’t been looking very hard lately, but she knows Fortuna isn’t the only, what are they calling it, ‘Solaris Debt-Internment Colony’. It’s just the only one on Venus. Originally, Biz is probably from one of the other ones. Maybe he tried to break free from the Corpus there. Maybe it didn’t work, and the place got wiped off the face of the starchart. Maybe that’s why he’s so determined to try again.

As she said, though. Guesses.

“So why now? It’s been years.”

“The situation here has… become bleaker than ever, to put it lightly. Without anything keeping him in check, there is nothing to stop Anyo from doubling and tripling work quotas and driving down wages. If the current trends continue, paying anything off will become a distant fantasy.”

“Like it already wasn’t? That’s kind of the point.”

Biz hums speculatively. “True. More of a distant fantasy, then. However, I have been sending regular transmissions to a few individual Tenno—one way communications, unfortunately, although I believe I can determine whether they do want to help or not.”

“Right.” She sighs. “This involves me, doesn’t it?”

* * *

“You’re back,” Biz notes. “That was fast.”

“Easiest supply run I’ve ever flown,” LD agrees. “Corpus seemed distracted. Like, someone else making a mess nearby distracted. What did you do?”

“Personally? Nothing. I did, however, ask the Tenno I am in touch with to go to V Prime and cause as much trouble as possible.”

She lets out a low whistle. “They’re good, I’ll give them that. Can you tell which ones went?”

“Actually, yes.” He’s smiling. She can hear it in his voice. “More than I expected, although to be fair I would have considered this a win if one showed up. The Corpus are saying that there has been thirty-one times more destruction that usual there, and counting. Tenno are still there, as a matter of fact—I was waiting for you to send them the all clear.”

She's surprised, and impressed, but that quickly turns to pure and utter shock once the rest of his words sink in.

“They’ve been there the _whole bloody time?_ Sure, it was fast for a supply run, but it’s been three orbit-hours! Are they—wait, never mind, they’re Tenno, why am I even asking. Go ahead and send your transmission, I’ll wait.”

“Right. On it.”

As he works, LD takes a seat on a nearby table, eyes what’s on it. Looks like some kind of servofish, mostly useless scrap from what she can tell.

“So what are you doing these days?”

Without skipping a beat, or glancing up, Biz says, “Selling fishing gear, officially.”

That’s… not what she was expecting, to put it lightly.

“Unofficially?”

“Attempting to preserve the delicate balance of the Vallis’ ecosystem.”

“That’s… it?”

No wetwork, no spycraft—minus what he’d obviously done to steal his Corpus-made comms link—no nothing?

“I also sell fishing gear. Servofishing, to be exact.”

He’s joking. Has to be. Except, he doesn’t joke—or when he does, they tend to fall flat. This would be too good a joke for him, which means it’s gotta be true. Which is bloody insane.

“You’re going soft, old man."

He shrugs. “A quiet life isn’t so bad. I recommend it.”

Despite herself, she actually laughs. She missed him, damn it. She misses everyone. Not everyone’s coming back, that much is bloody obvious, but… she almost finds herself believing, too. That’s why she sticks around, eventually mutters something about the Quills when Biz raises an eyebrow. She’s a good liar—they both are—but somehow, she gets the feeling he doesn’t believe her.

Maybe this will work. Maybe reaching out to the Tenno will be worth it. It certainly helps that Biz is bribing them. LD doesn’t have much experience with the Tenno, except for an incident with a blind girl, a Void Gate, a couple of different Tenno, and the Lotus. They’d seemed nice enough, if… well, mute.

If all Tenno are as honorable and as capable as the legends say they were, well. Fortuna has nothing to worry about, and neither does Solaris United. Hope is a funny thing, and not one that Little Duck’s had much of lately—but this time might just be different.

**Author's Note:**

> If any of you are interested, the ARG's long since over, but the channel's still around and has some pretty interesting stuff in it, if any of y'all can read Corpus script. [Have fun!](https://discord.gg/lifttogether)
> 
> On an unrelated note, here's to hoping I didn't screw up LD's character ughhhh


End file.
